Steering Board

Chair of the InvestEU Steering Board; Deputy-Director General – International and Investment, Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN)

Before becoming Deputy-Director General, Elena Flores has held several senior management positions at ECFIN, including Director for International economic and financial relations, global governance; Director for Policy Strategy and Coordination and Director for Economies and Member States II. Previously, she worked as head of the units ‘Public finance in the euro area and the EU’ and ‘Monetary union: technical and financial market questions’ and served as Advisor in Commissioner Solbes’ office, responsible for economic policies, employment, taxation and financial issues.

Director - Investments, Sustainable and Innovative Transport, Directorate General for Mobility and Transport (MOVE)

Herald Ruijters’ main working areas include the trans-European transport network, Alternative Fuels, Intelligent Transport Services, Urban Mobility, Passenger Rights, as well as social, research and innovation. Alongside these major policy areas, his responsibilities also include the funding and financing instruments that are transport related, notably the Connecting Europe Facility, Horizon Europe, InvestEU, ESIF and RRF.

Director of ‘European Research Area & Innovation’ at the Research and Innovation (RTD)

Anna Panagopoulou is Director of ‘European Research Area & Innovation’ at the Research and Innovation Directorate General of the European Commission. She is responsible together with her teams to co-create with Member States and stakeholders policies to shape a globally competitive European research and innovation system that is open, performant, cohesive and conducive to transformative innovation for a sustainable future.  She has been working in the Commission in various policy and management roles for 24 years. She holds a master degree in electrical engineering and has a long professional experience in private and public sector.

Director for Policy, Strategy and Outreach (DG Connect)

Thibaut KLEINER is the Director for Policy, Strategy and Outreach at DG Connect. He has worked since 2001 at the European Commission. The first ten years of his career in the Commission were spent in the area of competition policy (merger, antitrust and State aid). He was notably member of the cabinet of Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for Competition, in 2007-2010 and head of unit for State aid coordination in DG Competition. In September 2011, he moved to the digital policy area, as advisor of Vice-President Neelie Kroes, in charge of the Digital Agenda, and supervised Internet policies at large (Internet Governance, cybersecurity, cloud, data). From January 2014 to June 2016, he was head of unit in charge of network technologies (5G and Internet of Things) in DG Connect. From June 2016 to December 2019 he was the deputy head of cabinet of Commissioner Oettinger, in charge of Budget and Human Resources and he then came back to DG Connect to head the unit in charge of Research Strategy and Coordination. An economist by training, Thibaut holds a Master from HEC Paris and a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Director - Head of Mandate Management Department

Christoph Kuhn is responsible for the management of EIB’s mandate activities inside and outside the EU. Before InvestEU, Christoph held responsibility for the design and implementation of predecessor mandates, notably the Risk Sharing Finance Facility, InnovFin, the Connecting Europe Facility and the European Fund for Strategic Investment.

Director - Sustainability & Quality Management Department – Projects Directorate

Laura Piovesan is currently Director of the European Investment Bank’s Sustainability and Quality Management Department within the EIB’s Projects Directorate, with responsibilities on policymaking, notably in the fields of climate, social and environmental sustainability, additionality and impact, as well as on ensuring the quality of projects and the application of EIB standards during the project cycle.

Director - Head of Strategy and Business Development Department – Mandate Management

Laurent Braun is in charge of EIB and European Commission mandates in the EIF.  Prior to that, Laurent held positions in risk management, restructuring and investment in both EIB and EIF.

Paweł Chorąży is Managing Director for EU Funds and Development aid in the Polish Development Bank: Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK). He is responsible for a large and sectorally diversified portfolio covering loans, guarantees and equity supported by the EU and Polish public authorities at national and regional level. Since Poland’s EU accession Paweł Chorąży held several senior positions in the ministries dealing with EU funds (2004 – 20015 as a Director, 2015-2018 as an Undersecretary of State) and was responsible for management and implementation of the EU programmes.

Chief Executive Officer

Michel Casselman has been CEO of PMV since 2014. PMV is the Belgian promotional institute responsible for Flanders, with own assets and assets under management/advise totalling EUR 1.5 billion. PMV provides equity, (subordinated) debt and guarantees to companies and projects in its region, with a focus on both societal and financial return for its investments. Within the Steering Board, Michel Casselman represents the group of smaller NPBIs.

Expert appointed by the European Parliament

Alain Lamassoure is a former Magistrate of the French Court of Auditors, Mayor of Anglet, France, Member of the French National Assembly, Minister for European Affairs, Budget Minister and served five terms as Member of the European Parliament. In his capacity as MEP, he was Chairman of the Budgetary Control Committee (CONT), the Budgets Committee (BUDG) and the Special Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Nature or Effect (TAXE 2).